This Much I Know - The Seedcamp Podcast

Werner Vogels, CTO and VP at Amazon.com and a world-leading expert on scalable systems, didn’t have the traditional entry into tech one might expect. Responsible for driving Amazon’s technology vision, which is to continuously enhance innovation on behalf of Amazon’s customers at a global scale, Werner is one of the architects behind Amazon’s approach to cloud computing, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Tune in to the 100th Seedcamp podcast special for a deep-dive as Werner talks to Carlos about his fascinating and varied journey from studying Computer Science aged 28 and a 10 year career in academia, to co-founding his own business before starting his first “real job” at Amazon in 2004. Learn more about the core pillars that uphold Amazon’s approach to hiring, team work and commercialisation as well as how a relentless focus on customer centricity guides all product development. With references to Seedcamp-backed companies such as TransferWise - improving customer experience and disrupting staid industries such as financial services - hear Werner’s thoughts on the need for enterprise to innovate to compete with younger companies or risk going out of business. If the above player doesn’t work for you, you can also listen directly from our Soundcloud page. Show notes from the episode: Carlos Website: www.carlosespinal.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Amazon: http://aws.amazon.com Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Werner: www.linkedin.com/in/wernervogels / twitter.com/Werner

In this episode, Seedcamp Partner, Carlos, is joined by Alex Kayyal, Europe Head at Salesforce Ventures, investing in the next generation of enterprise technology. Alex brings over a decade of experience across technology and finance, having been both an investor and entrepreneur. Prior to Salesforce, he helped establish a venture growth firm and also founded his own startup. Alex's experience as a founder, investor and investment banker puts him in a unique position to understand the, often daunting, M&A process from both a company and investor perspective. In this podcast, Alex and Carlos discuss the art and science of valuation, from a company and acquirer perspective, and the sell and buy process. Tune in for top tips on how to avoid a 'fire sale' situation and learn more about Alex's first-hand experience when it comes to scaling a business, seeking investment and how to internationalize. Salesforce portfolio companies include: Carto, CoolaData, Digital Genius, NewVoiceMedia, Onfido, Qubit, RedKix and Universal Avenue, among others. Show notes from the episode: Carlos Website: www.carlosespinal.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Salesforce Ventures: http://www.salesforce.com/ventures/ Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Alex: www.linkedin.com/in/alexkayyal / twitter.com/alexkayyal

In this episode, Seedcamp Partner Carlos was joined by Hugh Campbell from GP Bullhound. The conversation begins with Hugh explaining his time at Oxford where he studied "Physiology, psychology and philosophy". They then proceed into speaking about his work experience with City Bank and Goldman Sachs before his 3 co-founders decided to take the lessons learned in investment banking to create GP Bullhound. Since it's inception the company has now expanded outside London to new locations like Manchester, Germany and France to be closer to great tech companies because these come from all over Europe. Speaking about the challenges of fundraising Hugh shares that in his view today's biggest challenge for founders in the UK is not to raise £1M early stage round given the existing tax benefits but it's much harder for businesses that are at 10 or 15 people and want to grow to 100 and need a larger round. He then proceeds to share his tips on fundraising and give examples on how to build better relationships with investors while explaining how trust plays a big part of an M&A deal. Regarding exits they discuss the rise of private equity firms in the purchasing of tech busiensses and how those are different from traditional large acquirers like Google, Microsoft or Facebook. During the podcast Hugh and Carlos also approach the state of enterprise software market especially regarding exit options. They then proceed speaking about the evolution of the European investor and tech scene during the last decade focusing in the IPO scene and how it is improving in Europe with IPOs like Auto Trader, Boohoo, Zalando and Rocket Internet. These have been impacting the entire European landscape including the German technology market fuelling it's incredibly fast growth - especially in Berlin all of which despite not having the tax brakes in the UK. Finally they discuss the expansion strategies for UK based companies and Hugh shares his favourite book for young entrepreneurs so that they can evaluate if their idea is any good at an early stage. Show notes from the episode: Carlos Website: http://www.carlosespinal.com Seedcamp: http://www.seedcamp.com GP Bullhound: http://www.gpbullhound.com/ Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @twitter.com/cee Hugh: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/hucampbell / https://twitter.com/hugh_gpb

In this new episode of the Seedcamp Podcast Nic Brisbourne, Managing Partner at Forward Partners joins Carlos Espinal. Being passionate about both maths and sciences during his high-school years Nic ended up studying Social and Political Science at Cambridge for three years. His first job right out of university was in a traditional company where he worked as a consultant at Gemini Consulting. This first experience allowed him to have a unique view on the existing parallels between being a VC and being a consultant. After this first experience Nic moved on to the venture industry in 1999 living through four months of excitement before the bubble burst and experienced first-hand the hard-times that came right after. During his years at Reuters he learned a lot and had the privilege to look at exciting new areas like IoT and AI really early on when they were not as popular as they are today. More recently Nic joined Forward Partners as a Managing Partner investing in ambitious startups. Nic also clarifies the types of businesses they are interested in investing in as well as how they are uniquely able to help their founders. Finally, discover his views and insights on to the future with possible impacts of Brexit, what startups should focus on and the one book that he recommends to all founders. Show notes from the episode: Carlos Website: http://www.carlosespinal.com Seedcamp: http://www.seedcamp.com Forward Partners: http://www.forwardpartners.com Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @twitter.com/cee Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brisbourne / https://twitter.com/brisbourne

In this episode of the Seedcamp Podcast learn about Corporate Development from a strategic buyer and aquihires with Chrys Chrysanthou from Notion Capital and Carlos Espinal. Tune in and listen to Chrys share how going through the military and managing 70 persons helped him get a job at Cisco where he ended up staying for 10 years and learned how corporate ventures work. After his time at Cisco he had the opportunity to join a promising young startup in the space of the Internet of Things space and manage their operations as the COO. Later on Chrys ended up joining Amazon Web Services where had the privilege to work closely with Amazon CTO - Werner Vogels leading Business Development efforts of the startup ecosystem. And finally, in 2014 Chrys moved to the Venture Capital industry joining Accel Partners first and later moved on to join Notion Capital where he is now and focusing more on early stage B2B Cloud & SaaS startups. http://www.seedcamp.com http://www.carlosespinal.com http://www.notioncapital.com https://twitter.com/cchrysan

In the latest podcast, Sitar of Connect Ventures talks to Carlos Espinal about the issue of growth in startups. They discuss the importance of Product focus and User Experience with the impact on virality. After completing her studies at Duke University and a brief work experience in Investment Banking, Sitar decided to move into the early stages of Venture Capital. This lead to her to go against her initial plan and move to the UK to join the well known Doughty Hanson where she lead investments including Soundcloud. Along the way, Sitar got to meet her current partners at Connect ventures and soon enough discovered that they shared the same long term vision for the company which resulted in Sitar joining in as a Managing Partner. With investments in both Citymapper and Typeform, Sitar shares her view on why product focus is such a key differentiator for Connect Ventures. Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @twitter.com/cee Sitar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sitar / @twitter.com/sitar - www.seedcamp.com - www.carlosespinal.com - https://twitter.com/sitar - http://connectventures.co.uk/

In today's episode, Carlos from Seedcamp is joined by Alex Stephany, Tech CEO, Advisor and Author of "The Business of Sharing: Making it in the New Sharing Economy". Tune in to listen to Alex on how he hustled his way through the tech scene from scratch, after studying english Literature, ending up to became the CEO of Justpark. Alex and Carlos move on to discuss key advice on hiring and exchange views on job titles for early employees, how to keep your team motivated and how to understand if you have made a bad hire. If you're interested in Sharing Economy, this is the time to turn the volume up. Alex explains that the reason why he's written a book focused on this topic was to offer a 360 degree view coming from the entrepreneurs when compared with other books which have been primarily written by scholars or economists. Listen to a discussion on the professionalisation of the supply side, it's impact on the sharing economy and their visions about the future. Show notes from the episode: Alex Website: http://alexstephany.com Seedcamp: http://seedcamp.com Book: amzn.to/1xA0Fq3 Related bio links: Carlos: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @http://twitter.com/cee Alex: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/alexstephany / @http://twitter.com/AlexStephany

In this episode, Seedcamp Partner Carlos was joined by David Clayton from True & North. Starting off by speaking about David's early life and career and how it lead first for him to work at The Guardian. They proceed into speaking about the creation of True & North in 2010 with the goal of helping companies improve their growth and sales. David shares his advice and examples on how to improve the quality and success of your sales calls by creating authority and credibility early during a cold call. Finally, he also speaks about the top key reasons for why sales teams fail and how keeping things simple when focusing on the mindset, different processes and goals of every call or meeting which can substantially improve the success rate of any call. Show notes from the episode: True & North: http://trueandnorth.co.uk Seedcamp: http://seedcamp.com Related bio links: Carlos: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @cee David: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/dsclayton / @dave_clayton

In this episode, Seedcamp Partner Carlos was joined by Vincent Jacobs from Kima Ventures. Together they speak about Vincent's education and career which includes working at Seedcamp back in 2012. Sharing some insights on how Kima Ventures works, Vincent speaks about their investment strategies as well as the deal pipeline management techniques they have been building since 2010. These strategies allow them to manage a large amount of applications and also a portfolio of 380 companies. Vincent and Carlos also dive into the evolution of the startup landscape in the last few months and the challenges that Kima faces when investing in companies all over the world, including countries that are underserved by investors. Finally Vincent speaks about the evolution of the requirements for raising a Series A round during the last few months and how those differ between the UK and the US. http://seedcamp.com/ http://www.kimaventures.com/ https://twitter.com/vincejaco https://twitter.com/cee

In this episode, Seedcamp Partner Carlos was joined by the experienced investor and entrepreneur Christoph Janz, Managing Partner at Point Nine Capital. The result is an in-depth conversation about investing in SaaS companies and the key KPIs to have in mind for this sector. Listen to Christoph​ sharing his story​ about catching the “entrepreneurial virus” at just 12 years old​, and re-living some of the stories from his time as the co-founder of DealPilot.com(acquired by Shopping.com) and Pageflakes (acquired by LiveUniverse), as well as an investor in companies such as Zendesk, FreeAgent Central, Geckoboard and many others. If you’re a founder, operator or investor in any globally ambition SaaS business then you’ll want to hear Christop’s take on key metrics that early startups should have in mind to scale their businesses and get his thoughts on everything from customer acquisition challenges to sales pipelines. Show notes from the episode: Christoph's blog: http://christophjanz.blogspot.com Seedcamp: http://seedcamp.com Related bio links: Carlos: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @cee Christoph: https://de.linkedin.com/in/christophjanz / @chrija